Among the cynical youth of India, a political star search

NEW DELHI: Are India's recent successes a result of or in spite of its leaders?

India's largest-selling English-language newspaper, The Times of India, says its readers feel that the achievements of the past few years have largely been made despite the interference of its civil service and successive governments.

Struck by readers' frustration at the absence of a dynamic younger generation of politicians ready to take over from the elderly political elite, editors at The Times of India decided to circumvent the traditional political process and launched a competition to find India a new batch of inspiring future leaders.

The newspaper's "Lead India" campaign has taken the nation's new-found passion for televised talent shows and extended it to the arena of politics. Rather than displaying their skill at Bollywood dance steps, short-listed contestants will have to shine as they argue over nuances of foreign policy. Game-show-style programs will have finalists competing against each other to revitalize a long-neglected government school in three days.

"We are looking for a few brave souls. Young Indians who prefer to lead from the front rather than from the armchair," the application form reads.
The winners will be catapulted into the limelight later this year by the combined might of the Times Group's newspapers and its television and radio stations and will ultimately be encouraged to seek election and enter mainstream politics during the next round of parliamentary elections.

A shrewd marketing gimmick for the media organization, the competition nevertheless hits on a genuine problem in India. With a prime minister, foreign minister, president and leader of the opposition all in their 70s, the country is short of young talent willing to dedicate themselves to politics. Most of the handful of politicians in their 30s - including Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora - who have achieved prominence inherited power from political parents. Of 545 members in the lower house of Parliament, 419 are over 50, and 69 are over 70.

Those behind the contest see this dearth of new faces as the result of deep-rooted cynicism, ingrained in a generation of younger Indians who feel no desire to step into politics. The third generation since independence, Indians in their 30s and younger have largely opted out of the political process, explained Rahul Kansal, The Times of India's brand director.

Their grandparents' generation was touched by the idealism of India's freedom struggle, he said. "That generation grew up wanting to create a new, modern India. But by the time the next generation came along, that idealism had faded, the magic had gone from the dream; all there was left was a sense that things didn't work and an awareness of corruption. Instead of idealism there was anger," Kansal said.

"Then in the next generation, this anger gave way to cynicism. Instead of feeling disappointed they began to think, 'Why should we expect anything more from the government, from the politicians?' That is the popular mood that we have launched this campaign into."

The competition is part of a yearlong, unabashedly patriotic campaign by the newspaper designed to shake readers from their lethargy and exhort them to start working to transform India into a superpower.

A series of televised advertisements starring Shah Rukh Khan, one of Bollywood's best-loved actors, launched the contest last month, as India celebrated 60 years since the departure of the British.

"Today we are in our 60th year of independence. That works out to be more than half a century. And we're still happy being called a potential superpower, an emerging economy or a sleeping tiger?" Khan remarks with slick incredulity in the clip. "What are we going to do? How are we going to turn from a land of philosophers into a land of doers?"

With a reproving frown, he concludes: "Let's stop basking in our glorious past or daydreaming about our great future. Let's start by dominating today."

The paper's campaign is a reflection of "the fact that this is a momentous time in India's own history, and we should not let it slip by," Kansal said.

"We began to see a tonal change in the way that Indians looked at themselves. There was a newfound swagger, a newfound confidence," he said. "But there was a constant lament against the political classes, against the system of governance. It was almost as if the country's development was coming in spite of the government and not because of it. We felt we needed to roll up our sleeves and start to do things."

The marketing consultant Suhel Seth said that the campaign had touched a nerve but that he doubted whether the next generation of leaders would be found in the metropolitan, English-speaking middle classes who make up the newspaper's readers, instead of the rural heartland. "But the cause is a good one. There is a dearth of real leaders," he said.

The political analyst Kuldip Nayar said that if a new generation of younger politicians is to emerge, then rather than relying on newspaper contests, political parties should fix quotas for young people. "The problem is that the old guard which occupies the top positions in politics is not willing to retreat to give opportunities for the younger ones. The only ones who are being given real opportunities are related to the older generation - their sons and nephews," he said. "There is still a strong feeling here that intelligence goes with gray hair. When a bright young person comes along, he is invariably kept down."

So far more than 19,000 have e-mailed the company or returned newspaper forms submitting themselves for consideration. There are candidates like Sumit, 28, a dentist who writes on his application that he served as a "class monitor between 1985 and 1988" and has "actively participated in various dental health awareness programs," and, perhaps more plausibly, a stern-looking wing commander from the Indian Air Force who describes himself as dedicated to exposing corruption within the services.

Kansal believes that the new mood of optimism sweeping through urban India will do much to dissolve the prevailing climate of apathy. "I think that the next generation will be less cynical. Suddenly it is hip to be Indian. Salaries are going through the roof; there are opportunities galore. People are more inclined to see the upside of being Indian," he said. "These are the new faces we want to bring to politics."

Brave through the bad times

’I learnt: to stretch a shoestring budget to the max, the importance of a satisfied customer, value of a good team, and the fact that starting a company is no joke.’

D. Murali
V.R. Vinod Kumar

Approximately one-third of employees in Indian software companies today are women. An increasing number of women enter professional engineering streams such as computer sciences and electronics. With the demand for technical professionals remaining strong in IT (information technology) industry, women will remain valued employees. “But the glass ceiling does exist at the senior management levels,” says Nita Goyal, co-founder and VP of Tavant Technologies.

She should know, as ‘the first woman to have obtained a computer science (CS) degree from any of the Indian Institutes of Technology’, a PhD from Stanford University in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), and a successful entrepreneur.

Goyal is, however, hopeful of better times for women. “I see a change with Indian companies that are beginning to create a better eco-system that supports women at work in terms of availability of quality childcare, creating women forums that allow for mentoring, flexi-time, rehiring, work from home etc,” she says, responding over email to questions from eWorld.

Excerpts from the interview:

How has your journey been thus far, beginning from IIT?

I went from being a student in IIT Kanpur to being a PhD student in CS at Stanford University. Stanford was a humbling and inspiring place where one got to learn with and from the best in the world. After graduating from Stanford I joined Hewlett-Packard (HP) Labs and learned how to apply research skills to real-world problems. The technology developed by our group at HP was spun off as a start-up. This was my first experience as an entrepreneur — participating in everything from finding an office to developing technology and leading an offshore team. By 2000, the start-up fever hit again and Tavant was started. The journey beginning from IIT-K has been exhilarating. I have done research in academia and industry, lived the Silicon Valley experience of starting companies and seen a company grow from five to 1,000-plus employees.

How did your research in artificial intelligence find relevance in your subsequent work?

The PhD had led to my first start-up, Exemplary, as a spinout of my research. Soon after I left Exemplary, I got involved in discussing ideas with a group of executives who had been part of Junglee and we started Tavant in 2000. The key appeal of Tavant was the quality of the team that had come together — people from banking, Internet, enterprise software, consulting, research — who all worked well together. The AI PhD also came in handy in putting together Tavant’s mortgage pricing and optimisation solutions for our financial customers.

You have co-founded two companies. Did being a woman pose any difficulties?

Strangely enough, I never thought about it. Not that it was a piece of cake being one of the few women in a sea of men, but I never let that bother me. And I always found many friends and mentors, a large number of men and women who helped navigate this sea. Focusing on the work at hand rather than the gender has helped me.

Who is the person you most admire?

My mother. I learnt to balance my family, career, and other interests from her. She also taught me to strive and overcome gender barriers.

How do you balance your different roles?

Prioritisation and time management.

What is your advice to wannabe IT professionals among women?

Be yourself, know your strengths and weaknesses, enjoy the labour of work with professionalism, and value yourself as a contributor to society.

On your greatest challenge…

In early-2001, with the down-cycle in the market, Tavant had trouble raising finance and we had a big first customer to deliver to. It ultimately turned out well; the customer was happy and eventually became an investor too. I learnt: to stretch a shoestring budget to the max, the importance of a satisfied customer, value of a good team, and the fact that starting a company is no joke — no one should do it unless they are willing to put in the commitment and hard work needed to see it through the bad times that are almost inevitable in any business.

Does a corporate stint help when launching a start-up?

Yes and no. Just out of school, it is hard to appreciate how markets work and how companies function. Corporate experience definitely helps in that regard. But energy, enthusiasm, fresh ideas, no fear of failure are more important and it is not necessary to spend time in the corporate world for that. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google are outstanding examples of companies sarted by people with not much corporate experience. On the other hand, the combined corporate experience of the initial team at Tavant was a key success factor.

In promoting entrepreneurial spirit, how crucial is a culture that gives space for ‘failure’?

Failure is a critical part of entrepreneurship. For every Google that succeeds, there are hundreds of companies that fail. Often failures teach us more than successes. When failure becomes socially acceptable, innovation blossoms, as people are more willing to risk the unknown. In India, failure is not tolerated quite so well. But I believe there is change afoot, and young people are increasingly comfortable with risk and failure and there are more start-ups now than even a couple of years ago.

Should entrepreneurs be trend-oriented?

Trends are interesting because they capture some market belief and usually either offer new problems to be solved or new ways to solve old problems. However, blind pursuit of trends is what led to the dotcom bust in 2000. Question is not whether a business is following a trend but rather what is the value being created by the company. For example, the Internet has fundamentally changed the way many businesses are done and several large companies have been built on this realisation.

Are current times tough for entrepreneurs in India?
Entrepreneurship is a challenge anytime, anywhere. The Indian economy at the moment provides opportunities in almost every sector, but being an entrepreneur is never easy. However, entrepreneurship has many rewards, such as a sense of personal satisfaction and the thrill of seeing your vision become reality.

It is a myth that the challenge for new entrepreneurs is lack of finance. Actually, the biggest challenge is identifying your customer and the value you can provide them. Further, you need hard work and the ability to stand your ground against overwhelming odds. Of course, you do need money to get started, a team that believes in the idea, and people who are willing to support and guide you - especially your family.

Is the entrepreneurial spirit healthy in India?
The entrepreneurial community is not only vibrant but growing significantly across all sectors. Not only are more people, senior and junior, starting and joining young companies, a lot of venture capital is available to finance them. India does throw up particular barriers for entrepreneurs - poor infrastructure and insufficient ecosystem to support entrepreneurs (mentors, risk-averse family members, inadequate talent). Incubators would help in addressing many of these issues. That said, most of the lessons of entrepreneurship are equally applicable in India. There are numerous forums that promote the understanding of these lessons by enabling India's upcoming entrepreneurs to meet with other successful entrepreneurs and investors. These forums include The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN).

How far can education be tailored to foster entrepreneurship?
Business schools today are incorporating entrepreneurship as part of their programme program. This is a welcome trend but needs to be supplemented with practical experience. Experience of entrepreneurship offers its own education that cannot be replaced by any classroom. Entrepreneurship requires one to wear multiple hats, think on the feet, act with incomplete information (intuition) and learn from failure. Having the flexibility of taking a break from the academic programme program can also be useful. Many US universities allow for it and Silicon Valley is full of entrepreneurs who mixed education with entrepreneurship successfully.

In MP heartland, leadership is truly kid stuff

You don’t have to be old and wise to be a leader. These children have proved it by breaking the mould.

In Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh, children have donned the crusader’s mantle and are voicing the concerns of the predominantly tribal population. ‘‘Under Project Bachpan, children are selected to be leaders for the community, they work closely with different agencies to ensure that basic rights are there,’’ said Venita Kaul, senior education specialist, South Asia region, World Bank.

Following a World Bank study, it was felt that a more child-centred planning could help community development. The Jan Mitras, as these young boys and girls are called, conduct community meetings, establish a rapport with government service providers, and collect village-level data on issues such as education, health and child development. The project is being undertaken at the invitation of the state government and is being carried out in collaboration with the Naandi Foundation, an NGO.

‘‘The Jan Mitras work diligently on every aspect of the project. Their involvement has brought them into a new world. Sometimes, they have to walk long distances in the sun through rocky terrain, and there are days when they have had no time to eat till they return home at dusk,’’ said Rohini Mukherjee, manager, global partnerships, Naandi Foundation, Hyderabad.
The Jan Mitras say they have earned the respect of the community, which has boosted their confidence. ‘‘The team has become a committed resource pool,’’ added Mukherjee.

In Uttar Pradesh girls are forming ‘Meena Manch’ to raise awareness about girl child education. Meena, an animation character, created by Unicef and now a mascot for girl child education, is a role model for girls in villages and districts. Like the character Meena, the girls are not shy about speaking up.

The Meena Manch girls visit houses talking to families on sending their girls to school. They also track down the girls who are enrolled but do not attend school and encourage them to return. After a meeting with village elders organised by a Meena Manch, a grandmother observed that ‘‘educating a girl child should be seen as an investment.’’ By acting as role models, the girls are helping to change attitudes. Following the success of Meena Manch in UP, the concept has been expanded to several other states.

LEARNING TO LEAD: A Jan Mitra collecting village data in Madhya Pradesh

Ranjan Lakhanpal

He Lost His Father And Son To Excesses Of The State. But This Human Rights Activist Is Still...

Had such tragedies happened to any other man, he would have been broken, perhaps irreparably. But not human rights activist and lawyer Ranjan Lakhanpal, who lost both his father and son to excesses of the state.

“But those two incidents only prodded me to fight harder against the dispossessed, the weak and the vulnerable,” said the 52-year-old who’s taken up more than 10,000 cases of human rights abuses. "I know the pain of a sufferer."

Tears still fill Lakhanpal’s eyes as he talks about the death of his father and, much later, his son. “My father, an advocate like me, was arrested under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) because he raised his voice against imposition of Emergency and arbitrary arrests being made at that time,” he said, going back in time. “He died in jail."

What happened years later was worse. “My son, just 10, was killed by the police because I was fighting cases against them. They had earlier threatened me repeatedly, but I took no note. When I didn’t agree, they did this to put pressure on me,” said the man who’s now a rallying point for those taking up rights issues.

The legal eagle, who started his practice in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1980, has been instrumental in freeing 250 Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails. Not that he’s spared Pakistan. “I filed a petition in the Pakistan Supreme Court for violating the human rights of Lieutenant Sourabh Kalia and five other Indian soldiers who died during Kargil war. This was the first case to be filed by an Indian in Pakistan,” added Lakhanpal, who’s been crying hoarse about Bhikiwind’s Sarabjit Singh, awaiting execution in the Kot Lakhpat jail across the border.

Not one to back out from a tough, and often dangerous fight, the lawyer was one of the first ones to leap up to defend the accused in the infamous Jammu and Kashmir sex scandal. “Everyone needs a fair hearing,” is his simple argument against all charges, including that of treason.

So what’s been his best battle? He remembers the touching case of POK resident Shenaz Praveen Kausar and her India-born daughter Mobin. In a suicide bid, Kausar had jumped into the Jhelum in POK but survived and reached the other side of the river in India. She was immediately arrested and was later raped in jail. Kausar then delivered Mobin. But that was just one part of her unfortunate story. The Pakistan government agreed to take Kausar back but refused Mobin entry, saying she is Indian.

Lakhanpal filed a PIL in Jammu and Kashmir High Court for their release and adequate compensation. The court ordered cops to release Kausar and Mobin. It also granted Rs 3 lakh to them. After the matter got highlighted at the international level, Pakistan government too took back both Kausar and her daughter.

“This case is close to my heart because I helped a woman and her child who were totally helpless in a foreign land,” said Lakhanpal who sees Mother Teresaas his guiding light.

ARVIND KEJRIWAL | RTI ACTIVIST

"Anger against corruption lit the fire in me"

I wouldn’t say there was a single event or a turning point that fashioned a social activist out of me. Ever since I grew up, I was angered by the corruption in government office. As I grew older, I began to understand that it was the worst form of corruption because it ended up creating a corrupt society.

I used to wonder if it is possible to find a solution to the problem. There are many people who don’t want to pay bribes but end up doing so because they don’t have a choice. I used to think if it was possible to give them an option. My stint in the Indian Revenue Service added to what I felt. The department exposed the extent of corruption that prevails. I could see that corruption was here, there and everywhere.

In 2000, we started Parivartan, an NGO. We gave a call to the people: don’t pay bribes in the Income Tax department and Delhi Vidyut Board. Weencouraged them to come to us with their grievances. We would collect about 200 such consumer grievances and take them to the concerned government office. The work would be done.

But after about one and half years, we realised that this was no long-term solution. Our efforts helped the people but it did not empower them. In December 2001, Delhi government enacted the Right To Information Act following which it was possible for a common man to obtain information from the government. I studied the Act thoroughly.

In February 2002, one Ashok Gupta of Patparganj came to us. Despite numerous applications, he hadn’t received an electricity connection. We drafted an RTI application for Gupta and asked him to submit it to the electricity department. As if by magic, within 10 days, he got the connection.

You can say that this is when we evolved from middlemen to facilitators. Soon, we were drafting such RTI applications for most departments in the Delhi government. From then on, it grew bigger and bigger. We got involved in the efforts to get the national Right to Information Act passed. The central RTI Act came into effect in 2005.

Satyendra Kumar Dubey

Satyendra Kumar Dubey (1973 - 2003) was project director at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). He was assassinated in Gaya, Bihar for fighting corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral highway construction project.

Early life
Satyendra K. Dubey, the son of Bageshwari Dubey and Phulamati Devi, was born at the village of Shahpur in the Sewan district of Bihar, India. The family of five girls and two boys subsisted on a small piece of land, and Bageshwari also held a low-paying clerical position in a nearby sugar mill.

Until the age of 15 he studied at the Gang Baksh Kannaudi High School and joined junior college at Allahabad, about three hundred kilometers away. Living away from home was a considerable drain on the meager resources of his family. However, he pursued his dream of becoming an engineer, and was admitted to the Civil Engineering Department of IIT Kanpur in 1990, the first person from his village to achieve this feat.

He graduated with an excellent academic record in 1994. He graduated with an M. Tech (Civil Engineering) degree from IT-BHU in 1996.

Exposing Corruption
During planning,designing and execution of the project he found deficiency and corruption in every stage. He termed the project as "Great Loot Of Public Money" in the subject of confidential letter addressed to then Prime Minister.

{A dream project of unparalleled importance to the Nation but in reality a great loot of public money because of very poor implementation at every state.}

The GQ project had strict controls to ensure that the construction work would be carried on by experienced firms with proper systems. A second independent contract was given for supervision of the project. However, Dubey discovered that the contracted firm had been quietly subcontracting the actual work to smaller low-technology groups, controlled by the local mafia. When he wrote to his boss, NHAI Project Director SK Soni, and to Brig Satish Kapoor, engineer overlooking the supervision, there was no action.

According to the case file after his murder (FIR), Dubey had been facing several threats following his action against corruption at Koderma. A subsequent FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named both Soni and Kapoor.

In August 2003 when he was transferred to Gaya, a transfer which he opposed since he felt that it did not serve the interests of NHAI.

At Gaya, he exposed large-scale flouting of NHAI rules regarding sub-contracting and quality control. At this time he took a departmental test and was promoted as deputy general manager, which made him eligible to take charge as project director. Since there was no project director's post in Gaya, he was likely to be posted to Koderma soon.

There was widespread sentiment (based on their pattern of operation), that the criminal nexus, opposed to having him as director, may have been behind his murder.

Letter to the Prime Minister
Meanwhile, faced with the possibility of high-level corruption within the NHAI, Dubey wrote directly to the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, detailing the financial and contractual irregularities in the project. While the letter was not signed, he attached a separate bio-data so that the matter would be taken more seriously. Despite a direct request that his identity be kept secret and its sensitive content that pointed fingers at some of his superiors, the letter along with bio-data was forwarded immediately to the Ministry for Road Transport. Dubey also sent the same letter to the Chairman, NHAI.

Soon Dubey received a reprimand: the vigilance office of NHAI officially "cautioned" Dubey for the impropriety of writing a letter directly to the Prime minister. In the process, through connections in the NHAI and the Ministry, it is likely that the letter may have reached the criminal nexus running the highway construction projects in Bihar.

Following the event, pressure is mounting in India to incorporate a Whistleblower Law.

Contents of the Letter
The letter said the NHAI officials showed a great hurry in giving mobilisation advance to selected contractors for financial consideration. "In some cases the contractors have been given mobilisation advance just a day after signing the contract agreement."

"The entire mobilisation advance of 10 per cent of contract value, which goes up to Rs 40 crore (USD 10 million) in certain cases, are paid to contractors within a few weeks of award of work but there is little follow up to ensure that they are actually mobilised at the site with the same pace, and the result is that the advance remains lying with contractors or gets diverted to their other activities," it said.

Dubey also highlighted the problems of sub-contracting by the primary contractors.

[But in reality, they are getting most of the work done through numerous small petty contractors (main contractors are supplying only a few critical equipment & materials) at 50-60 per cent of the price quoted by them and the rest 40 per cent of contract price is being pocketed by them without much effort. In the process, the main contractors are working just like commission agents.] – Letter of S.K. Dubey addressed to Prime Minister Of India.

"Though the NHAI is going for international competitive bidding to procure the most competent civil contractors for execution of its projects, when it comes to actual execution, it is found that most of the works, sometimes even up to 100 per cent are subcontracted to petty contractors incapable of executing such big projects," he said. Everyone in the NHAI is aware of the phenomenon of subcontracting but turned the other way.

"I have written all these in my individual capacity. However, I will keep on addressing these issues in my official capacity in the limited domain within the powers delegated to me," the letter said.

Assassination
On November 27, 2003, Dubey was returning from a wedding in Varanasi, and called his driver to meet him at the station. He reached Gaya railway station at three in the morning, and found that the his car was not able to come because of a battery malfunction.

It appears that at this point Dubey decided to take a rickshaw home. When he didn’t reach home, his driver went to look for him and found him dead by the side of the road in the suburb of A.P. Colony. He had been shot.

The news ignited tremendous public hue and cry. The matter was raised in Parliament, and the Prime Minister shifted the onus of investigation from the Bihar Police (who might themselves be implicated), to the CBI.

A foundation, SK Dubey foundation, was set up to fight corruption in India.

The CBI registered a case against unknown persons under 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code and various provision under Arms Act on December 14 2003.

The Investigation
In early investigations, the CBI interrogated the rickshaw puller Pradeep Kumar who was caught using Dubey's stolen cell phone. The mobile phone was switched off for about a fortnight after the murder, but then Kumar called his 'second wife' in Kolkata, following which the CBI traced the rickshaw puller to his slum in Gaya. Although Kumar had a criminal history in similar cases of robbery, it appears he was released after interrogation, and could not be traced a month later.

Two other suspects, Sheonath Sah and Mukendra Paswan, were questioned by the CBI. They were found dead from poisoning on February 1, 2004, within within 25 hours of the CBI questioning. Sah's father lodged an FIR against the CBI with the Bihar Police, but CBI Director Umashanker Mishra called their deaths a suicide in a press meeting a few days later.

The CBI concluded its investigations and four persons were charge-sheeted on September 3, 2004. Based on testimony by Pradeep Kumar, who was his rickshaw puller, the event was presented as an attempted robbery. Because Satyendra put up a fight about giving up his briefcase, he was shot.

The person accused of actually shooting Dubey with a country-made pistol was Mantu Kumar, son of Lachhu Singh, of Village Katari, Gaya district. Accomplices with him included Uday Kumar, Pinku Ravidas and Shravan Kumar.

Murderer Escapes
On September 19, 2005, while the case was being heard in Patna, Bihar in the court of Addl. Session Judge, J M Sharma, Mantu Kumar escaped from the court premises, leading to widespread allegations of police complicity. While Mantu was being held at the high security Beur Jail, the invigilation can be lax during such court appearances, and it is a common tactic of the mafia to organize a few policemen to make it possible for the criminal to escape.

It was felt that the escape was engineered by higher-ups who may have executed the murder through Mantu Kumar.

The CBI announced a cash reward of Rs. 1 Lakh for apprehending Mantu.

A month later, Mantu Kumar was arrested from near his home in Panchayatee Akhada in Gaya. He had apparently been living in Gaya town and working as a rickshawpuller.

Who ordered the murder
Now, it is quite possible that Dubey may have been the victim of a simple robbery during which Mantu Kumar shot him, as alleged in the case filed by CBI. However, given the death and disappearance of several witnesses and the startling escape of the prime accused, there is wide-spread speculation that vested interests may have engaged the criminals who actually pulled the trigger.

As for the GQ project, the Supreme Court is currently overlooking investigations into the corruption charges initially raised by the Dubey letter. Several official have been indited and a technical team is overseeing the actual construction.

Also, as of September 2005, news reports indicated that the law ministry was about to introduce legislation to protect whistleblowers.

Meanwhile, on February 10, 2006, a 600 meter stretch of the highway connecting Kolkata to Chennai subsided into the ground, opening up ten meter gorges near Bally, West Bengal 2. This stretch had been completed a year back by a multinational firm, selected after global tendering.


Fighting Corruption
It is a testimony to fickleness of public memory that there was little hue and cry about Mantu Kumar's escape. Fortunately he was re-arrested.
However, even if it establishes these men as the actual perpetrators of the murder, the motives for the murder remain to be clarified...

However, the fight against corruption in India continues. Unfortunately it continues to claim lives.

A kindred spirit of Dubey, Manjunath Shanmugam, was a graduate of the prestigious IIM Lucknow, 2003 batch. Manju was working as a Sales Manager with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), and refused bribes and ignored threats in his drive to check rampant adulteration of petrol in the pumps owned by the erstwhile monopoly Indianoil. On November 19, 2005, he was shot dead in Lakhimpur Kheri, allegedly by a petrol pump owner and his gang.

Legacy
Dubey's murder drew several protests in India and abroad, especially by the media. Student and Alumni bodies of IITs took the lead in raising this issue. S. K. Dubey Foundation for Fight Against Corruption in India was launched to systematically fight against corruption. IIT Kanpur instituted an annual award in his name, Satyendra K Dubey Memorial Award, to be given to an IIT alumnus for displaying highest professional integrity in upholding human values. Arvind Kejriwal, a recipient of this award, went on to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award as well. Indian Express had also announced a fellowship in the name of Dubey.

Satyendra Dubey was recognised posthumously by several awards, which included the Whistleblower of the year award from the London-based Index on Censorship, the Transparency International's Annual integrity award and the Service Excellence award from the All India Management Association.

Also Read : Article From Rediff.com

Source : Wikipedia